FOR Russell Sharp the very best things come in the smallest of packages.

While it may be no larger than a matchbox, an Australian-first pacemaker and defibrillator fitted into the Lake Eppalock farmer’s chest today has the power to keep him alive and stun his heart back into action if it fails.

Within hours of having the tiny device implanted at Bendigo Hospital — and just a fortnight after suffering massive heart attack — Mr Sharp, 67, was sitting back up in bed celebrating his place in history and stunned at how far the pacemaking technology has come.

“How they fitted those old ones in anyone’s chest I’ll never know,” Mr Sharp said.

“I can’t even feel it — I’d never know it was there.”

A fifth smaller than previous devices, Mr Sharp’s Autogen Mini pacemaker is designed to continuously pick up the pace of his slow heart beat and, if it becomes very irregular or stops, kick in with a defibrillator to shock it back to action.

The cutting-edge device will even send an immediate text message to his doctor’s phone to raise the alarm and provide full details of what is happening inside his chest in an emergency — which could be a matter of life and death on Mr Sharp’s isolated property.

“I’m on a farm and get in places where I can’t ring and don’t have reception, so if I weren't down in a paddock I’d be dead. But now the doctor will know ‘he is down, lets go find him’,” Mr Russell said.

Bendigo Health cardiology clinical director Dr Voltaire Nadurata said he was thrilled with the hospital’s Australian first, stemming from pioneering collaborations to test and develop therapies for the devices.

“It will be like he has a 24/7 MICA paramedic on standby if something does wrong and the defibrillator will kick in,” Dr Nadurata said.

“It will make him able to sleep at night knowing something will save him.

“The technology is evolving and the device is getting smaller, the battery life is getting longer.

“The smaller device sits nicely in the chest so there is less chance of it protruding out and of erosion.”

As well as making it much less obtrusive through his skin, the size of the Autogen Mini makes it less likely to lead to infection, easier to implant, and with a battery life of up to seven years.